Dexter’s Obsessive Compulsive Blood Lust

BOOKS

JEFF LINDSAY — DEXTER, AN OMNIBUS : DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER, DEARLY DEVOTED DEXTER, DEXTER IN THE DARK

It is of course out of the question to summarize these books. They work well only if you do not know what is coming. That is called suspense and Jeff Lindsay is a master in the way he can surprise us in new and unforeseen developments, though of course we know Dexter is always alive and will always survive. The three volumes each have a perfect unity brought by the arch enemy to which Dexter is confronted in each one of them. The fact that he is a police blood spatter analyst by training is only an easy device to set him in the heart of all serial killing cases.

The fact that he is a serial killer himself makes his life absolutely schizophrenic and he has to learn how to live with that doppelganger of his. The fact that he is trying hard to be human, including by marrying someone, is just some kind of bag of obstacles he has to solve and negotiate constantly, especially with the two kids of his paramour and soon wife. The archenemy is self appointed and a real challenge for Dexter. Each volume has its archenemy: sibling, colleague who becomes target, some old god’s — Moloch — illuminated believers.